Safeguards built into HB 944 scholarships

When thinking about who should be the ultimate decision maker — and the ones most accountable for a child’s education — the answer is not only obvious but has been reaffirmed year after year:

Darrell Allison

To the editor:

When thinking about who should be the ultimate decision maker — and the ones most accountable for a child’s education — the answer is not only obvious but has been reaffirmed year after year:

A strong majority of voters believe parents should ultimately have the decision-making power regarding how to best educate a child, according to a recent Survey USA poll. That’s accountability at its best.

Unfortunately, not every parent can access the school that may work best for their child.

For example, wealthy parents exercise their ability to choose by moving to an area with good, traditional public schools or paying for private school. Interestingly, no one seems to question the wealthy parent’s judgment in sending their child to a private school nor do they scrutinize the quality of that private school. But when legislation is crafted to assist low-income and working-class families with similar options, public education is suddenly on the brink of disaster.

Poor parents should not be subjected to this double standard. We should not assume that one’s intelligence is proportionate to the size of his or her bank account and we should not subscribe to the idea that poor parents don’t have the knowledge or common sense to know what type of education is best for their child.

House Bill 944 (Opportunity Scholarship Act) a very liberating idea. This measure helps poor parents access the best school for their child through an accountable and transparent program. House Bill 944 allows children from low-income and working-class families to receive scholarship grants of up to $4,200 per year to attend private schools that could meet their educational needs.

It is for this reason that I salute the measure’s primary sponsors. This bipartisan group of leaders have taken Herculean steps to guarantee this bill has strong academic and financial annual accountability standards including: financial audits on a random sample of applications to ensure only low-income and working-class children receive scholarship grants; audits to ensure schools are properly utilizing scholarship funds; requiring participating schools to provide parents with an annual written explanation of their child’s academic progress, including scores on standardized achievement tests; participating schools with more than 25 scholarship students will have their aggregate test scores reported to the public; and an annual program report, which includes a learning gains comparisons between scholarship students and similar public school students, must be made to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee and the Department of Public Instruction.

These lawmakers have worked to ensure this measure does not hogtie nonpublic schools but acknowledges that they must be held accountable to taxpayers and families.

Moreover, House Bill 944 is not a “bait-and-switch” measure that starts off benefiting poor children and then expands to those who can already afford private-school tuition. The program’s initial qualifying income level is up to 100 percent of free and reduced lunch and will not go beyond 133 percent of that amount. In addition, half of the scholarship funds will always be earmarked for students within 100 percent of free and reduced lunch limits — ensuring that the most underserved children will have access to a scholarship.

If we want to give our underserved students quality opportunities for academic success, it is only right to make sure these programs are accountable and transparent to parents and taxpayers.

House Bill 944 provides low-income and working-class parents an option to help them find a quality educational environment that can best meet their child’s academic needs and also empowers them to be the ultimate accountability authority when it comes to their child’s education.

Darrell Allison

Raleigh

Editor’s note: Darrell Allison is president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina — www.pefnc.org.

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